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Thursday, November 30, 2017

British iPhone users could get £300 compensation as Google is sued over illegal data ‘sharing’.

It is alleged that Google’s algorithms allowed them to 'trick' people’s iPhones into releasing personal data from the phone’s default browser Safari.

GOOGLE is facing a massive lawsuit over claims it illegally took personal information from up to 5million British iPhone users.

The action is brought by campaign group Google 'You Owe Us', led by veteran consumer champion and former Executive Director of Which?...Richard Lloyd.

It claims that between 2011 and 2012 Google used algorithms to bypass default privacy settings on the iPhone.

Lloyd said yesterday:

“I believe that what Google did was quite simply against the law. Their actions have affected millions, and we’ll be asking the courts to remedy this major breach of trust. Through this action, we will send a strong message to Google and other tech giants in Silicon Valley that we’re not afraid to fight back if our laws are broken.”

Lloyd went on to say :

“In all my years speaking up for consumers, I’ve rarely seen such a massive abuse of trust where so many people have no way to seek redress on their own,” he added.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

London’s black-cab maker could strike a deal soon on the second overseas market for the new electric version of its famous taxi, the boss of the Chinese Geely-owned firm told Reuters on Wednesday.

An electric cab belonging to the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is seen in London, Britain, November 29, 2017.

The London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) picked Amsterdam earlier this year as its first foreign destination, where around 225 vehicles will be used as part of a service which transports the elderly and disabled.

Chief Executive Chris Gubbey told Reuters the firm was hoping to conclude talks with a second European location soon, potentially by the end of the year.

“Quite soon hopefully there will be an announcement on the second one after Amsterdam. We’re getting very close now,” he said.

LEVC is undergoing a major expansion plan which they hope will see it sell around half of around 10,000 vehicles abroad by the turn of the decade, including a new delivery van.

I write to you with reference to the serious matter of Uber concealing a breach of data and the councils continuous support of Uber being ‘Fit and Proper’ to hold a Brighton & Hove Operators licence.

Reports have stated that some 57 million account holders and some 600,000 driver details were stolen in 2016 .

It is one matter having such a breach of security in the first place but it is an entirely different matter that such a serious breach in 2016 was never revealed to the public or regulators until one year later in November 2017 when it was revealed that it had paid 'hush money' to the hackers.

When it is considered that Fred Jones of Uber immediately ‘reached out’ to the public to condemn TfL and the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan for refusing to re-licence Uber and yet remained absolutely silent with no warning to the public when data was stolen... such inaction can clearly demonstrate the fitness of an organisation that is fully supported by the council.

It is presumed that Mr Fred Jones gave no indication to the council that Uber tried to hide this serious data breach when applying for the renewal of the Uber Brighton & Hove Operators Licence when presenting the company as ‘Fit Proper’ to hold such a licence.

TfL Investigation

We have since learnt that TfL are now involved in the investigation and on the principle that Brighton & Hove Council Hove have based the recent re-licensing of Uber on how TfL are managing the refusal of the Uber London Licence we now call on Brighton & Hove Council to act in the same way as TfL and carry out its own investigation into the breach of data and the implications of Uber remaining silent about this for over a year.

We also require the council to justify to the trade that it still considers Uber to be ‘Fit and Proper’ to hold a Brighton & Hove Operators Licence.

“The ride-hailing firm admitted this week to concealing a cyber-attack that affected 57 million customers and drivers last year.

Security services and the information watchdog were left scrabbling to assess the scale of the damage on Tuesday, amid warnings Uber's secrecy could result in "higher fines".

The firm hid the breach by reportedly paying hackers a ransom of £75,000 ($100,000) to delete the data and keep the security lapse quiet.

While Uber said it could not confirm how many customers in the UK had their details compromised, TfL said they are working to establish whether the hack affected Londoners. A TfL spokesman said: “We are working to gain clarity from Uber on whether any of the issues seen in the US have occurred here.

“We are pressing them for the full details of what has happened so that we can be satisfied that all the right protections are in place for the personal data of drivers and customers in London.”

Stolen information included names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers, in addition to the names and number plates of 600,000 drivers in the US

Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokesman said: "These are obviously concerning reports and the National Cyber Security Centre is working closely with domestic and international agencies, including the National Crime Agency and the Information Commissioner's Office, to investigate if and how this breach has affected people in the UK. "It is a worldwide incident and it is unclear at this stage which countries were affected by the hack.

"What we do know is, based on current information, we have not seen evidence that financial details have been compromised." He added that Uber "did not notify individuals in the UK, the UK Government or UK regulators" at the time the hack was discovered in October last year.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) warned Uber it could face fines, saying the incident raised "huge concerns around its data protection policies and ethics". The tech company reportedly tracked down the hackers and pressured them to sign non-disclosure agreements so news of the incident did not become public.

Company executives had then dressed up the breach as a "bug bounty", the practice of paying hackers to test the strength of software security, according to The New York Times. James Dipple-Johnstone, deputy commissioner of the information watchdog, said: "Uber's announcement about a concealed data breach last October raises huge concerns around its data protection policies and ethics.

"It's always the company's responsibility to identify when UK citizens have been affected as part of a data breach and take steps to reduce any harm to consumers.

"If UK citizens were affected then we should have been notified so that we could assess and verify the impact on people whose data was exposed.

He added: "Deliberately concealing breaches from regulators and citizens could attract higher fines for companies."

Please note that I have supplied a copy of this email to various organisations...publications ....individuals and interested parties and with respect your reply will be made publically available unless you specifically refuse permission.

Uber's Data Hack, Has Affected 2.7m Of Their Customers And Also Their Drivers.

In October 2016, Uber experienced a data security incident that resulted in the hacking of information related to riders and drivers accounts. For riders, this information included the names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers related to accounts globally.

Uber said their outside forensics experts have not seen any indication that trip location history, credit card numbers, bank account numbers or dates of birth were downloaded, but customers have been all over social media, saying they've been charged for expensive journeys they never booked.This is a global issue, but in the United Kingdom alone, this involves approximately 2.7m riders and drivers.

Uber again say this is an approximation rather than an accurate and definitive count, because sometimes the information we get through the app or our website that we use to assign a country code is not the same as the country where a person actually lives.

Again proof that this company takes little regard of complaints made on Twitter or Facebook. As they don't have a complaints land line number (a requirement for operators, under the PHV act 1998) this would be the majority of camp,aunts made. When this happened, we took immediate steps to secure the data, shut down further unauthorised access, and strengthen our data security.

They also decided to say nothing to regulators or customers and have Bly spoken now as this breach has been publicly exposed. DO I NEED TO TAKE ANY ACTION? Best advice to customers is to delete their account and contact their bank, informing them not to pay any Uber trips charged to their account. Uber have made a statement that they encourage all users to regularly monitor their accounts for any issues.

They say customers should let them know via the Help Centre if anything unexpected or unusual related to your Uber account. You can do this by tapping "Help" in your app, then "Account and Payment Options" > "I have an unknown charge" > "I think my account has been hacked".

Funny they should put this out after stating that no customers (to their knowledge) have been hacked! It also appears that their own drivers are now complaining that money has been taken from their accounts!

NCSC advice for Uber customers and drivers

Mayor Khan has turned a blind eye to all the scandal that's hit the media over the past few weeks. The rise in UberRape, the escalation of road traffic accidents, the allegations of industrial espionage of competitors and the Data hacking.

Khan made his feelings about Uber clear in Osbourne's Evening Standard

THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME UBERS CUSTOMER SERVERS HAVE BEEN HACKED !

In addition to failing to notify users and the public about the information that was exposed, the company paid the hackers $100,000 to delete the data and subsequently had them sign nondisclosure agreements. The city further alleges that the ride-hail company failed to correct security vulnerabilities that led to a previous data breach in 2014.

The complaint reads:

“After the details of Uber’s May 12, 2014 data breach were revealed to the public, Uber was investigated by a number of state and federal regulators that were concerned about its inadequate data security practices. Uber ultimately promised to bolster its data security policies by, inter alia, adopting protective technologies for the storage, access, and transfer of private information ... less than a year later the same failures led to a breach that was one thousand times worse.”

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Uber's been sued at least 11 times in just 1 week, faces new scrutiny from Senate.

It’s now been a full week since the jaw-dropping revelations that Uber sustained a massive data breach in 2016, which affected over 57 million people.

Since November 21, the company has been hit with 10 federal lawsuits (including the two Ars reported on last week). On Monday, the City of Chicago and Cook County also sued Uber in Illinois state court, while numerous senators are now demanding answers as well.

The cases allege substantial negligence on Uber’s part: plaintiffs say the company failed to keep safe the data of the affected 50 million customers and 7 million drivers.

Uber reportedly paid $100,000 to delete the stolen data and tried to keep news of the breach quiet by having the hackers sign non-disclosure agreements.

In the case of City of Chicago v. Uber, city and Cook County lawyers wrote that in October 2016, then-CEO Travis Kalanick was contacted by two hackers who claimed to have millions of individual Uber customers’ records.

"In striking resemblance to the 2014 breach, the hackers had accessed a private GitHub repository and found database login credentials," Chicago's attorneys argued.

"While the repository was password-protected, hackers were still able to breach it—indicating either a very weak password or the fact that the user credentials for the repository were found in a previous unrelated data breach. And even though Uber specifically promised regulators that it would use two-factor authentication on services like GitHub, it clearly failed to implement that promise. Once inside the GitHub repository, the attackers once again found AWS login credentials, which the attackers then used to access and extract the personal information of over 50 million people, including Chicago and Illinois residents."

Last Tuesday, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote: "None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it."

According to the Wall Street Journal, Khosrowshahi learned of the breach two weeks after he took over the company’s top job on September 6, and yet he kept quiet for over two months.

Chicago attorneys also wrote that the company’s claims that the stolen data has been fully expunged is "nonsensical."

"It has not demonstrated, in any way, how or why it knows the data was actually deleted," they wrote. "No matter what documents the hackers signed, or representations they made, Uber is saying little more than that they trust the word of criminals."

"Integrity"

The broadly-similar proposed 10 class-action suits were filed in several federal courts across the country: in San Francisco; Los Angeles; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Portland, Chicago; and even Huntsville, Alabama.

On Monday, a group of senators, lead by Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), specifically asked for a "detailed timeline" of the incident, among other demands due by December 11.

Similarly, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) also had an even more damning question.

"To the extent Uber had lawfully acquired information enabling it to identify the hackers who had compromised its systems, ensure they would abide by agreements to delete the data and not to disclose the breach, and transfer them $100,000, it conceivably had enough information at hand to assist law enforcement in the apprehension of these criminals," he wrote.

"Why did Uber choose not to provide relevant forensic information to law enforcement and has this information been provided to law enforcement in the last week?"

Uber spokeswoman Molly Spaeth sent a statement to other media, including the Chicago Tribune, which read: "We are committed to changing the way we do business, putting integrity at the core of every decision we make, and working hard to regain the trust of consumers."

There's and old saying, which has never been truer than today.....none so blind as those who will not see!

Instead of looking closer to home, as passengers choose Uber over buses and trains, TfL has put the blame of an unexpected fall in passenger numbers on .... Brexit.

TfL said:

We have seen lower growth in demand for our services than previously forecast for this year, largely owing to economic factors affecting the whole of the UK, including the uncertainty of Brexit.

Lower consumer confidence, GDP growth stagnating, real wage growth and a softening housing market are all affecting services and retail in London, leading to lower than forecast passenger numbers.

Current patterns in rail journeys show a year-on-year reduction in trips within Zone 1, which TfL said was reflected in its lower passenger income, and that the economic headaches had also buffeted its commercial revenue.

Operation Horizon back on the table.....

With Uber allegedly expanding its fleet of minicabs to over 40,000, plus private hire licenses dished out like sweets to all comers -even those without adequate criminal record checks!- TfL are expecting negative pressure on demand for London's public transport to continue for the first half of its five-year business plan.

The transport body's overall income for 2016/17 was £6.8bn, and for 2017/18 it is expected to drop to £6.5bn, while passenger income is expected to dip from £4.7bn for 2016/17 to £4.6bn for 2017/18.

Added to this, TfL is also having to contend with its Department for Transport grant reduced by £2.8bn from 2015/16 to 2020/21.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said in the plan: "Our spending decisions become even more important in today's economic climate. While all other major transport operators in the world receive some form of central government subsidy, the government has taken £2.8bn away from TfL's operational funding."

TfL announced last month that upgrades for the Jubilee Line and Northern Line have been shelved after a surprise dip in passenger numbers on the Tube.

Out of desperation, TfL have flooded central London with an excess of buses, many remain empty most of the time, with the Tube the only part of the network still making a small profit. The transport body has been left facing an "investment prioritisation process".

But in its business plan, TfL said early indications were that the fare freeze "has helped to dampen the effect of these negative economic factors". Putting up fares will encourage more people to Use cheaper services such as Uber.

Where fares have been increased on the National Rail network, this has led to "much sharper reductions in passenger numbers for those operators", TfL added.

TfL are hoping people will turn away from cars and Taxis. They are hoping to bring new passengers from outside London in on the Tube.

In their planned fight back, TfL have fully backed plans to disrupt surface transport with pedestrianisation of major streets in WI, unreasonably quick green light phasing, segregated cycle lane's congestion, numerous unmanned road works...etc, banking on the Elizabeth Line to bring a considerable much needed boost to their economy.

TfL also plan to ramp up income from commercial activities such as interactive advertising at bus stops as well as Tube and Coach Stations.

Monday, November 27, 2017

Alejandro Done will serve up to 12 years in prison for raping a young female passenger.

Sebastian Murdock

A former Massachusetts Uber driver has been sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison after raping a female passenger, adding to a growing list of Uber drivers accused of sexual assault.

Boston native Alejandro Done, 47, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced last Friday on charges including kidnapping, assault and battery, and aggravated rape, according to USA Today.

Ex-Uber driver Alejandro Done was sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for raping a female passenger.

On Dec. 6, 2014, Done picked up a woman heading to her home in Cambridge. Done told the woman that she would have to pay him in cash. The two went to an ATM to withdraw money, then Done drove her to a secluded location, reported the Star Tribune.

Done kept the victim trapped in the car as he strangled and sexually assaulted her.

The felon has previously been charged with five other unsolved sexual assaults that happened in the Boston area between 2006 and 2010. That case is still pending. Uber told USA Today that Done had passed a background check, and had no prior criminal record.

“The defendant preyed upon a young woman who trusted that he was who he portrayed himself to be,” District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement. “I encourage the public to take precautions when using any ride-sharing service.”

In another recent case, in South Carolina, a sixth-grade teacher, who was moonlighting as an Uber driver was arrested on charges of kidnapping and forcible rape. Patrick Aiello, 39, was accused of assaulting a 23-year-old woman in August. The woman managed to escape from the car and was struck by another one in the process. Aiello later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, and authorities dropped felony charges of kidnapping and criminal sexual assault against him, according to the Post and Courier.

A former Uber driver in India, Shiv Kumar Yadav, was convicted of raping a female passenger Tuesday.

Many states in the U.S. are demanding that Uber ensure its background checks are more thorough. Last year, prosecutors in California filed a complaint against the ride-hailing service for failing to adequately vet drivers, some of whom have been convicted sex offenders, kidnappers and murderers.

Last April, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker proposed a bill giving his state oversight in background checks. Uber has backed the legislation proposal, and hosts a petition on its website in favor of the governor’s plan, which has more than 30,000 signatures.

Uber faces a litany of other problems. Last weekend, drivers called for a strike and demanded better pay and higher fares. The service has been suspended in Spain for creating unfair competition and it is banned in Italy for not adhering to licensing rules. French taxi drivers, who were upset by having to compete with Uber, took to the streets last summer, smashing cars and setting tires on fire.

(Reuters) - Mexico's transparency body said on Sunday it would seek information from Uber about the consequences of a large data breach that the ride-hailing company disclosed on Tuesday.

The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data said it would attempt to determine how many users, drivers and employees in Mexico had been affected, as well as the steps Uber [UBER.UL] would take to mitigate the damage and prevent such breaches from occurring in the future.

On Tuesday, Uber said it paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts.

"We confirm that no type of historical information related to trips, credit card numbers, birth dates or social security numbers was exposed in the case," an Uber spokesman said in a statement. "We will continue to provide in a timely manner all the information that pertains to this case."

The disclosure sparked concerns from regulators around the world. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday that it was "closely evaluating the serious issues" presented by the incident, and Britain's data protection authority said that concealment of the data breach raised "huge concerns" about Uber's data policies and ethics.

Uber will have to stop providing its car-sharing service in Israel as of 10 AM Wednesday, after the courts ruled in favor of competing companies. A Tel Aviv judge issued an injunction to that effect on Monday.

Judge Eitan Orenstein explained that because the drivers in question lacked appropriate insurance for passengers, he could not allow Uber to continue to operate run Uber Day and Uber Night ride-sharing services using private household cars in Israel.

The Uber taxi service, however, may continue, the judge ruled.

Uber had been successfully sued by an Isreally Taxi drivers association. Separately, the Transportation Ministry sued Uber in May, on the grounds that Israeli regulation forbids taking passengers for money unless one has a taxi license. That case is still pending.

The ministry claims that not only the driver, but even passnengers are in violation of the law. In the suit they name Uber's local manager, Yoni Greifman, and six drivers as those who are accused of taking passengers for pay.

Uber began operating in Israel in late 2016, on a small pilot basis. It expanded its carpooling operations over a month ago despite objections from the government.

A source at the Transportation Ministry speaking on condition of anonymity told TheMarker, "Someone boarding an Uber car is a criminal - both driver and passenger."

"The ministry is conducting a legal petition against the company, and there is the possibilty of filing of an interim injunction against its activities and the opening of a full criminal proceeding. A criminal proceeding will be conducted against anyone who provides the service or is a passenger and against the company itself. The legal counsel of the transportation ministry is working with all the relevant parties to find the most appropriate path forward." the source said.

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Last Saturday night, we saw licensed Taxis without the Gett app being turned away from Battersea Park venue Evolution.

I had a booking to pick up a young lady at 01:00.

I got there a little early but my approach to the venue was blocked by a parks police officer, who told me that only Taxis with the Gett app on their phone....(notice he didn't say booking, just needed the app on their phone)...were being allowed to approach the entrance and form a rank outside the venue.

I had to park in the riverside car park some distance away.

While I waited there, I was approached by a number of people leaving the venue asking if I was for hire.

I decided to walk up and have a word with the Gett Marshal. He agreed that I could come in and pick up my booked job and spoke to the police on my behalf to let me through there picket.

This behaviour has upset many Taxi drivers who feel that Gett are stealing our work and then selling it back to drivers and have made their feelings clear, widely reporting on social media platforms.

In replies to complaints from drivers about the exclusion, it seems everyone has passed the buck.

The parks police said no cabs were turned away, the event management company said the exclusion was nothing to do with them and Gett said all the jobs were pre booked. This definitely was not the situation that I witnessed.

Well 'I was there' and I saw Taxis turned away, plus there appeared to be no advice about a Taxi rank in the other car park.

Gett also released this statement :

Déjà vu again last night:

A friend of mine popped into Evo last night and spoke to the parks police who again tried to get him to turn away by saying all the work was booked. Apparently people leaving the event were being given a token which they could take outside where they could take anyone of the vehicles ranking there, clearly plying for hire and not booked jobs.

The constable said he could drive up and see, but he would be there a long time before he got a job.

This was not the case. He pulled up outside with his light on and within minutes got a £50 job to North Finchley.

So if you are passing Battersea Park tonight and fancy taking you chances at Evolution, don't let the park police turn you away as we've been told that the Taxi trade are not excluded from waiting outside for work.

Addison Lee, made a statement in the week that all jobs at Evolution this weekend will be pre-booked.

Again we see more anti Taxi bias from a BBC London News reporter, in a broadcast made just yards away from the BBC In Portland Place, referring to the mysteriously hushed up Uber Attack on Exhibition Road, a Taxi incident.

This is extreme bias and a slur on our iconic trade from the BBC, who refuse to accept there is a difference between Taxis and Private Hire.

This is completely unacceptable and complaints should be made on behalf of ever London Taxi drivers who feels slated by this unnecessary attack on our good name.

Coming just days after the media announcements that although serious sexual assault complaints in private hire vehicles had gone through the roof with the fact that last year, not one attack was reported to have taken place in a Licensed Taxi.

They keep getting away with this (even though our name is protected under government legislation), because it appears our representative orgs in the New United Trade group (LTDA, UCG, Unite and RMT) are weak and seem to have no plan, no idea what to do next.

So the ball is now in your court, and it's all up to you.

Get in contact with BBC London News and make it clear that you are not happy with the lazy journalism, resulting in constant slurs on our trades reputation.

Friday, November 24, 2017

So, Uber say that the 57 million passenger details have been bought back and that their Credit Card account details are safe. They also said that no ones been charged for journeys they haven't booked.....who remembers this from 2015 !

Minicab app Uber denies it is being hacked despite avalanche of tweets from customers complaining of thousands in losses - and even Anthea Turner is getting cross...

Concerned: Anthea Turner took to Twitter to contact Uber about her apparent account breach

Uber users are being told to check their usernames and passwords after a growing number of people have been charged for journeys they did not make.

Anthea Turner was the latest to have her account compromised, leaving her with a bill for journeys she did not book or take.

The TV presenter tweeted to Uber 'account has been hacked nothing to help me on website – this is ridiculous'.

Uber is a mobile app that connects minicab ride requests with drivers. Users can input their credit card details on the app so that they do not have to have cash with them to pay.

But the Uber support Twitter account is awash with users complaining that they have had cash taken from their accounts for journeys that they did not book or make. Some users have reportedly had hundreds or even thousands of pounds taken from their accounts.

Uber still denies that it has been breached - but has promised to reimburse all customers who have been charged for journeys that they did not book or take.

Elaine Johnson tweeted: 'Help – my account has been hacked and I don't know who to contact to report this to? Someone's spending my cash.'

The complaints on Twitter are coming from users across the globe including the States and France.

Record producer Mick Crossley told The Evening Standard he had been hit with a bill for £3,000 for 142 journeys. He said he did not receive notification that the journeys had been booked because someone had changed his contact email address on his account as well.

Just last night Twitter user Jade Samantha posted a screenshot of Uber journeys taken on her account totalling close to £100, which she claimed she never took. Some Twitter users are responding to account hacking postings with the hashtag #ubered.

Amanda O'Shaughnessy told This is Money she found out that someone was using her account when she started to receive invoices for journeys she had not made. 'I've lost complete trust in the service and it's for these reasons that I won't use them again, despite the convenience,' she said.

Some customers have also vented their fury at their inability to get hold of someone at Uber to report the situation to.

Worried: Anthea Turner reached out to Uber support on Twitter after she was charged for journeys she did not make

The website does not contain a telephone number, only an email function for enquiries.

Anthea Turner was one user who appears to have struggled to get through to the minicab sharing company.

She tweeted that she couldn't even change her account details because her login details had been changed by someone. Then after appearing to have tried to get a phone number for them, tweeted Uber saying 'your email is saying not valid and the number from 118 500 is not ringing through. Do you exist?'

A spokesperson for Uber categorically denied that there had been a breach at Uber, confirming to This is Money that they were 100 per cent sure that their system had not been compromised.

Charged: Users have taken to Twitter to share concerns about their accounts being hacked

'We take any issue of this nature very seriously and after investigating have found no evidence of a breach at Uber,' an Uber spokesperson said. 'Attempting to fraudulently access and use Uber accounts is illegal and we notify the authorities about such activity.'

However they admitted that there have been a number of users reporting that their accounts had been used by other people to book journeys.

Popular: Uber has dramatically reduced the cost of cabs - but a small number of users are experiencing problems

They said they were still investigating the cause, but that the most likely explanation is that there had been a data breach on another e-commerce website.

Since people often use the same usernames and passwords across several online accounts, fraudsters have attempted to use the data hacked from another site to access Uber accounts.

It said the issue is being taken very seriously and anyone left out of pocket will be reimbursed.

A spokesperson added: 'We would like to remind people to use strong and unique usernames and passwords and to avoid reusing the same credentials across multiple sites and services. However, anyone who is charged for a trip they didn't book or take would get a refund.'

Full credit card details are not stored on an Uber account account, but a hacker can see the last four digits of a card number, as well as their full email address and phone number.

From this a person could commit wider identity fraud, or sign into other accounts if the username and password is copied across other sites, apps and accounts, if this isn't the method by which they breached the Uber account in the first place.

Despite the frustrations of some customers, Uber is not sharing a phone number that people can call should they think they have been affected.

Instead they can email supportuk@uber.com and should receive a response within an hour. A spokesperson for Uber said this method was 'more efficient' – particularly since Uber is a global company - and the email account is monitored 24 hours a day.

Dismayed: Increasing numbers of Twitter users have taken to the site to share their experience of Uber journeys booked on their account by someone else

The reported account breaches come after reports last month that hackers had allegedly obtained thousands of login details for Uber accounts worldwide – and were selling them for as little as $1.

Two sellers – known only as Courvoisier and ThinkingForward – were reportedly using online marketplaces on the dark web such as AlphaBay to offer this personal information.

Uber reiterated at the time that it had found 'no evidence' of a security breach in its systems.

Since then, a wave of customers have complained of fraudulent trips being charged to their credit card account.

In an attempt to discover the root of the problem, Motherboard has received a guide on how to use these accounts.

The step by step tutorial is sold by Courvoisier, one of the vendors who originally advertised the hacked Uber accounts.

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :

So, what type of information does Uber store about their customers ???

Remember this scandal from earlier this year that seems to have been swept under the carpet by TfL!

In a disturbing turn of events, Uber has been tracking oblivious iPhone users even after they removed the application from their phone. Two years ago, the situation escalated to such an extent that CEO Travis Kalanick earned a slap on the wrist from Apple mogul Tim Cook.

The New York Times reported that Kalanick pulled a "fast one" on Apple back in 2015 when the app continued to identify and tag iPhone users after they had deleted it from their phones. In doing so, Kalanick's company violated Apple's privacy guidelines and was nearly booted off the App Store.

The practice is called 'fingerprinting,' which Uber used on iPhones initially as a fraud-prevention method. It is a piece of code that identifies a specific iPhone, locates it, and remembers it. Uber hoodwinked Apple engineers by geofencing Apple's Cupertino headquarters to hide this code, but Cook & Co. soon discovered the deception. The whole debacle resulted in an awkward face-to-face meeting for Kalanick at Apple headquarters back in 2015 where Uber was forced to comply with Apple's regulations.